The modular approach to ship system fabrication is starting to manifest itself as little pools of parts in the lab… good thing we resurfaced those crusty old particle-board workbenches a few months ago! The current lab-based projects are: Console (communications gear, audio, geekstuff) Waterworks (fresh-water processing) Bow Module (steerable spotlight/video/sensors & LED navlights) Field Radio…

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Note: My Shacktopus neologism has had three meanings. The first one was designed in 2005… a sort of paleo-smart phone of backpack scale, bringing lots of resources into a single system for substrate-independent technomadics… I called it a “communications laptop.” The second use of the term was never well-defined, and was a temporary name for…

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In what is probably going to become something of a routine, I’m now on my second “winter work session” aboard Nomadness, blogging as I go. Since the last installment, I’ve done a fair bit on the home front, and also posted an introductory walkthrough of the boat… the first of what should be a large…

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I can already see how the winter is going to take shape, and it’s going to take a major exercise of will to get through it. “Next steps” bubble to the top of OmniFocus and get flagged, I make a first-pass approximation of stuff needed and load up the truck, then drive far away and…

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Nomadness has completed her shakedown cruise — covering 621 miles in 2.5 months. This is a languid pace, in geographical terms, but the experience gained was considerable… enough to induce a near-total inversion of the project priority list, satisfy a host of initial learning curves, smoke out the weaknesses of the ship, and advance to…

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The season is turning, that’s obvious. We’re pinned down in Deer Harbor with a frontal system coming through… 30-40 knots tomorrow, a brief respite on Sunday, another blast on Monday. We parked here to rendezvous with Andrew of Navigator Stove Works and get the black-enameled Little Cod wood stove installed. The timing couldn’t be better.…

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Nomadness in Montague Harbor

We are now in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island, back in the US after 2 convoluted weeks in the Gulf Islands of Canada. This photo is from Montague Harbour on Galiano Island… we were hiking among the glacier-worn rocks, shell middens, and ancient madrona trees of Gray Peninsula, and Sky snapped this candid moment with…

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Up the Nomadness mast

A great mode shift is about to occur… re-entry into the US and a sudden whirlwind of projects to begin the final phase of making the full-time transition to water. I’m rafted in the rain to a mighty ketch in Saanich Inlet, headphones pumping An Tua, genset thrumming coulombs, Sky ashore with friends, Java padding…

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Java walking on air

How bizarre it is to be at anchor in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, confronting the daily challenges of field electronics projects and keeping up with battery/food/water usage while slurping catastrophic financial news via the Internet and trying to assess the impact. Talk about a cognitive disconnect… kayaking the harbor at sunset while numbers…

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My head is a-swirl with data, extrapolated subjectively from imperfect measurements and flawed instruments. There’s the Link 10 that randomly resets itself, forgetting the status of the batteries. The Xantrex inverter that would like to charge at a decent rate but overheats when I attempt to do so. The trio of diesel tanks that offer…

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